Author: JenRan

While we were staying in the Philadelphia area, we decided to do a quick trip into Delaware, state #30 on this trip across the country. We may do another quick venture into this tiniest of states on our way back down the east coast in a few weeks. Delaware is

From Ohio, we entered the very tip top of Pennsylvania — a very small section squeezed between Ohio and New York — visiting Erie for several days… and getting a good look at Lake Erie, our fourth Great Lake. Pennsylvania (officially, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania), the 29th state we have

Because of stormy weather, we only got to spend one day at this beautiful national park, but we packed a LOT into the one day! The 32,572-acre Cuyahoga Valley National Park only became a national park in 2000 — but it had been a national recreation area since 1974. It

O-H-I-O, the 28th state we have visited on our adventures across the U.S. The state gets its name from the Ohio River (a 981-mile river; the largest tributary to the Mississippi River by volume) whose name originated with an interpretation of the Seneca Indian word ohiːyo’, meaning “great river.” Ohio

After a bit of a national park hiatus, we were extremely happy to arrive in northern Indiana so that we could visit our 39th national park on this great adventure: Indiana Dunes National Park, located along the shore of Lake Michigan, and the first and only national park in Indiana.

From Michigan, we did a counterclockwise circle of Indiana and Illinois, stopping first in Bluffton, just outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. Indiana, the 26th state we have visited, means Land of the Indians (though not anymore) and is known as the “Crossroads of America,” because of the importance of waterways, railroads,

We left Wisconsin and headed into Michigan — state #25 — via the Upper Peninsula, or U.P. as most folks call it… arriving in the Munising area for yet another look at Lake Superior, this time on the southern shores, which offer stunning sandstone cliffs, sand dunes, and waterfalls —

We left Duluth and immediately crossed over the St. Louis River into Superior, Wisconsin… on our way to Osseo for a quick layover before arriving at our official first stop in state #24 — Wisconsin Dells, “the Waterpark Capital of the World,” and most certainly a major tourist attraction (a

The second half of our adventures in Minnesota (state #23) took us to Bemidji, International Falls, and Duluth… to amazing natural areas with lots of history (some good, some bad)… and smack into the heart of mosquito and tick country! We also discovered northern Minnesota seems to be the land

We started our adventures in Minnesota, the 23rd state on our quest to see the continental 48 during this 2.5-year road trip, in the southwest part of the state in Rochester — better known for being the home of the Mayo Clinic than anything else. Fun facts: The state is